The Red Rag column went on vacation for a while because I was busy with the publication of my first book, “Letters to judges and men in power”, which received a festive launch at the office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Tel Aviv on 1 May of this year. The rules of modesty forbid a person from attesting to the superior quality of his merchandise, so I will settle for a quote from Attorney Tamar Peleg, a veteran of many struggles for human rights, who concluded her words of welcome as follows: “This book belongs in the home of every person of the Left.” It is a unique book that challenges the justice system that has been corrupted by the Occupation, and its price of 50 Shekels is entirely donated to human rights organizations: Breaking the Silence, Yesh Gvul and Physicians for Human Rights. Those interested can send a cheque to POB 16202, Tel Aviv along with their postal address and the book will be sent to them.

Yizkor – Remember

One of the things that caught my attention during the Memorial Days for Fallen Soldiers and Underground Fighters (including Irgun and Lehi terrorists who threw bombs in markets and cafés) is a phenomenon that is recurs every year in conversations with the families of the fallen. They say that what characterized them was their love of humanity. And I ask myself how it came to be that so many lovers of humanity are willing to kill other human beings. I received at least a partial answer in texts of the Chief Rabbi of the IDF and the Rabbi of the Western Wall on the eve of Memorial Day at the Western Wall plaza: texts that called for revenge bordering on genocide. Then the People of Israel will remember its sons and daughters who fell in superfluous wars and needless military operations after they were drugged by governments, military leaders and collaborationist media, especially radio and television, who make out as if their deaths were not in vain.

I got the idea to draft an alternative memorial prayer along the following lines:

May the People of Israel remember the parents who raised children and sent them to the army with great pride as if all their all they wanted was to raise cannon-fodder for wars, and the youths went to their deaths like lambs to the slaughter in wars and military operations that were criminal initiatives by the State. May the People of Israel remember the small minority of true heroes, Occupation-refusers and war-resisters who refused to collaborate in the work of killing, preserved their humanity and proudly accepted the prison sentences that were imposed on them.

May the People of Israel remember with anger and scorn the settlers who with help of governments of Israel plundered and robbed lands of the neighbouring people and contributed to the perpetuation of the bloody cycle, which could have been and still can be stopped with wise policy and peace-seeking. Remember and do not forget that it another way was possible, that there was an alternative and it has been squandered so far.

The trek to Poland

Again this year we witnessed the repulsive phenomenon of Israeli high-school students wrapped in the Israeli flag, marching at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, a performance that cheapens the Holocaust desecrates the flag. More than once in the past I have criticized the spectacle of enlisting the Holocaust to increase motivation to join combat units in the army. The nationalist Education Minister Bennett continues on that contemptible path.

And as if that were not enough, this year was added the absurdity of the participation of the Justice Minister from the Jewish Home Party, who could have played a similar role in the Third Reich – just as long as no racist Jews were harmed.

This just in

A copy of a short letter from the depths of the earth has come into my possession. It was sent to Ms Smotrich and her husband Bezalel Smotrich, [1] a member of the Israeli Reichstag, and it reads:

Congratulations to my faithful disciples who are continuing my struggle. See you soon, God willing.

Signed,

Eva and Adolf

Translator’s note

1. Bezalel Smotrich, a Member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home Party, called for segregation of Arab and Jewish women in Israeli maternity wards, saying among other things: “It is natural that my wife would not want to lay down next to someone who just gave birth to a baby might [sic] want to murder her baby in another 20 years.” http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Report-Various-